Broadly, it has been known to use triple-fold doors and triple-fold doors on the ends of decked automobile transit rail cars to prevent vandalism, pilferage, etc. during transit of the car. An example of such a car is U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,446 issued Feb. 17, 1976 to the present inventor, Robert F. Seitz and two co-inventors.
The instant invention is an improvement over that patent in that it discloses an improved source of rotational power for moving the door assemblies into and out of the storage position and further includes improved movable mounting means in the form of a track along which the door assembly travels into and out of the storage position, both of which improvements provide an increased width between the opened doors by moving the center line of the pivot means closer to the corner housing in a manner that will be seen from the description of the invention to follow.
The power wheels referred to in U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,446 provided a mechanical advantage determined by the diameter of the housing and this, of course, is limited by the proximity of the adjacent structure. The new power wheel of the instant invention uses handles which literally fold and then may be lifted into a transverse position for use in turning the shaft through a portion of a revolution and then dropped. The lifted handle provides a mechanical advantage not dependent on the allowed diameter and the folded handles provide a smaller diameter than did the power wheel of the referenced patent. The method of retaining the handles in the housing provides great strength when compared to the conventional means of holding handles by means of hinge pins and lugs, in that enlarged cavity portions in the housing are provided into which enlarged ends on the levers or handles are seated. The size and shape of the openings through which the levers extend to the exterior is such that the levers may be moved from a position basically parallel to the shaft to a position transverse to the shaft in which a greater mechanical advantage is supplied. The details of how this is accomplished will be seen from the brief description to follow.